Philips 'Streetfighter' SGS 101

This lantern was removed from column 50605 on a short footpath leading to the A516 Mickleover bypass from Etwall Road. A second-hand, newer Streetfighter replaced it, though this was only as a temporary measure until the whole footpath received new LED lanterns as part of a new housing development in June 2019; the construction of which commenced in 2017. Whilst never very popular within Derby itself, this version of the Streetfighter (known as the 'Malaga' in other markets) saw considerable use in the wider County of Derbyshire - mostly, but not exclusively, confined to use on footpaths, owing to its supposed anti-vandal properties, along with the fact that, should one be damaged, a replacement lantern would not prove prohibitive cost-wise. Numbers are beginning to decrease, however, owing to LED replacement schemes.

The first couple of photographs show the lantern whilst still installed on the footpath. It was attached to a Fabrikat mid-hinged octagonal column, owing to the footpath being too narrow to accommodate any sort of maintenance vehicle.

The majority of Streetfighters in Derbyshire are designed for post-top mounting.

The lantern is mostly plastic/GRP in construction, though the spigot entry is aluminium. UK-specification versions of this lantern feature a turret section moulded into the rear portion, in order to accommodate a NEMA photocell socket, which requires a flat surface for optimum sealing. The turret is absent from other market versions of the lantern.

A Hy-Lite HL10R/HD photocell dating to February 1999, and probably original to when the lantern was installed, is fitted. The screw seen in the centre of the canopy secures the rear section of the lantern.

The NEMA socket itself dates to September 1998.

Although the lantern is supplied with a post-top spigot, this could be changed to a side-entry spigot instead, as seen with my larger SGS 102 lantern, by removing the screws that hold it in place. A single 4 mm grub screw secures the lantern to the column; later versions saw an extra grub screw added to the design.

A large curved polycarbonate bowl takes up much of the underside of the lantern. This hinges down for maintenance, and is secured using the two GRP toggles located towards the front of the lantern. The screws mentioned above are visible here.

The lamp area is sealed to IP 65, and it shows - the area is far cleaner in here than the lantern's exterior is! A rather worn Philips lamp is fitted; this was manufactured in August 2007 and has done well to provide approximately ten years' worth of night-time illumination to the footpath. The aluminium reflectors to the sides of the lamp have a slightly facetted appearance; this is more pronounced on later versions of the lantern.

Attached to the inside of the canopy, and concealed behind one of the reflectors is the identification label. The code located at the top-right of the label provides details of the factory that made the lantern (Hamilton, Scotland), along with when it was made - 9A: January 1999.

The gear area is sealed to a much lower degree than the lamp area is...not that you would be able to tell! Indeed, there is no means of sealing the entry hole for the supply cable, allowing insects and spiders to enter the gear area. The ballast shows signs of possible overheating, though the lantern was still operational when removed. The capacitor (located below the ballast in this view) also carries January 1999 as a date of manufacture.

The lantern was taken apart on Thursday, 28th March 2019, in preparation for cleaning the following day.

The lower section of the canopy separates from the front section by means of pegs moulded into the latter - these are intended for single-fit only; the two sections are difficult to separate.

The three components were pressure-washed individually.

Owing to the composition of the plastic from which the lantern is made, cleaning to an as-new condition was not possible; still, the worst of the dirt was removable. The bowl and aluminium spigot were cleaned too.

Then, the lantern was reassembled. I decided to treat it to a replacement ballast, owing to the poor condition of its original ballast.

The lantern was attached to a post-top stand.

The Hy-Lite photocell was re-fitted, although the NEMA socket is no longer connected up.

With a new lamp fitted, the lantern was brought back into use - ready to fight the streets once again!

Lamp warm-up video:

Testing with my energy monitoring device revealed the following results:

Test Voltage (V)	Current being drawn at full power (A)	Measured wattage (W)	Apparent Power (VA)	Frequency (Hz)	Power Factor	True Power (W)	Difference to rated wattage	Percentage Difference
251.4	0.52	103	131	49.9	0.78	101.97	31.97	45.67%